Dear Kimberton CSA community,
I hope all is well.
For those members who have not had an opportunity to read our latest update on COVID-19 protocol, please take some time to review it here. We will be sending out our introduction packages next week via email. In these documents you will have the opportunity to sign up for a specific pick up/u-pick window as we will be altering our regular farm hours when the season starts in 5 weeks’ time. Partial share members will also be allocated into Group A or B in this document. The first pick up for Full, Box, or Partial Group A shares will be 5/26 or 5/29 and for Partial Group B shares 6/2 or 6/5, depending on your selected pick up day—Tuesday or Friday.
All shares this season will be pre-packaged for a quick pick up and members will need to bring their own scissors and containers for u-pick. There will also be a strict one member per share policy for pick up and u-pick. Please remember, one member per share is just a temporary measure. We expect our new COVID-19 protocol to ebb and flow as the season commences.
On another note, we have closed our online sign ups. Please email me if you want to be put on our waiting list. There is the possibility—but no guarantee—of a few spots opening up.
I’d say it’s been since about mid-March that we have seen a significant increase in the number of sign-ups. It’s kinda caught up with us! We function on a first come, first serve basis. There is no other option, as we need to meet our operating expenses.
We realize we are very fortunate to be in this situation; despite the unfortunate circumstances. Even before Frank and I took over the farm in 2017, KCSA had not been meeting its membership capacity. The farm had to diversify its income streams to be able to make ends meet. I was at KCSA’s very first Farmer’s Market in Malvern in 2013, selling lettuces the size of my head! Some more Farmers’ Markets followed in the interim, splashed with a little wholesale until Frank and I inherited three Farmer’s Markets and a restaurant account, along with the CSA. Due to a lack of transport, personnel, and experience, we only had the capacity to take on one market at the beginning and chose Lansdale Farmers’ Market.
After our first year running the farm, we anticipated a drop in our CSA retention rate. This was to be expected under new management. That same year, we had the opportunity to be part of a new start up farmers’ market in Fishtown, Philadelphia. We took the chance with the hope that it would be a success. And some weeks were, for us at least. However, others were not and overall sales were down with us and only one other vendor making it through to the end of the season. The market subsequently folded.
So, it was only two months ago, where we were worried about how to make up the difference in our budget! We had offers of other markets but decided to wait for the right opportunity. In addition to dealing with a wet spring, farmers have been scrambling around setting up online stores or downloading online platforms to administrate and customize their sales. So, especially in cities, there is going to be more pre-ordered, pre-packaged boxes at markets. How this will affect sales is anyone’s guess!
We have been told for a few years now that online stores and administrative and customizable software is the way forward for the local food movement (mainly by companies selling such items)! It does make sense. In part, local, organic, CSA farmers have been victims of their own success. From filling a niche in the market—where communities wanted to eat healthy, wholesome, sustainable food and needed someone to grow it for them—to then expanding to meet additional demand through Farmer’s Markets, restaurant sales, natural food stores, and coops. There was a boom! Fast forward to 2020 and we are now competing with large corporate entities, online shopping, 2 hour delivery, boxed meals, “organic’ hydroponics, grub hub, “healthy” fast food, etc!
Yet, here we are, with a bustling CSA…and one Farmer’s Market. I feel privileged. I’d say I am a bit of a CSA purist!
Nevertheless, I’m also a realist. I get that this is an unprecedented year. COVID-19 has got people thinking local food again, which is brilliant. Plus, with the stay-in-place directive, we finally have enough time to cook! In fact, crises and emergencies are synonymous with bursts of localized food production, especially home or allotment gardening. Think Liberty Gardens (1917-1920) during WWI, Relief Gardens (1930-1939) during the Great Depression, Victory Gardens (1941-1945) during WWII, and Community Gardens (1970’s-onwards) in food insecure urban neighborhoods (see Pudup 2007).
The reason I got into farming in the first place was by studying local food systems at school. Once you start doing the research, the contradictions in the conventional food system are quite apparent. Environmental degradation, social injustice, and animal abuse, to name a few. These are not sustainable practices. That’s not to say there is no place for some version of conventional agriculture or, indeed, global markets. Obviously, there is. However, it is times like these that we realize that small scale farmers, organic growers and local food producers need to take precedence. We can change the world and make it a little better one meal at a time!
Thanks for your support. Lets hope for a good harvest season!
Best,
Andrew
